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A few hundred riders in a city of 2.3 million, doesn't bode well. The concerns of the many outweigh the demands of the few. Authorities everywhere have a history of banning and restricting with a broad brush, to avoid having to deal with things in the future. They also want to be re-elected. Satisfying 2-300 over 2.3 million does not compute. They won't single out rentable escooters, or even escooters, anything motorized that isn't a conforming ebike will be swept up in this new law. The police everywhere are stretched beyond capacity, and every country, county, state, city, town, is fighting to maintain basic services in the face of ever increasing budget cuts. The western world is living on MASSIVE public debt. Trying to satisfy a few hundred EUC riders does not even show up on the radar.

BTW, I had no idea Paris was so small. By comparison London has an official population of 8.3 million, slightly less than New York

There three major factors that govern the "grandness" of a city: Influence, Population, and geographical area. Population alone is only one factor that makes a city "big"; It's not even the most important factor in the information age. There are many variables behind the industrial era migration and settlement patterns. The most important factor is regional, national and global influence; its impact. The least important/relevant is geographical size.

Paris is similar to DC; compact, dense geographic/city proper/core surrounded by a large metropolitan area/suburbs. The majority of the population will reside in the suburbs.

The similarity in configuration between the two cities probably has a lot to do with the fact that DC was designed by a French Architect: Pierre Charles L'enfant who no doubt drew a great deal of his inspiration from his home city; Paris when planning DC.

Edited February 11 by LutaloToo wordy with too much information not really relevant to the discussion

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BTW﻿, I had no idea Paris was so small. By comparison London has an official population of 8.3 million, slightly less than New York﻿﻿﻿

When we talk about Paris (and the population of 2.8 million) we must consider that we are talking only about the town inside the “periferique”, a circular road that surround the town. (have a look on google maps...)

The real Paris is much bigger, with the suburbs it reach more than 12 million people. (Île de France)

... and yes I’m using everyday my wheel to go to work and not only. I never had any problem with the police, just one time when they kindly asked me not to stay on the road but on the sidewalk.

Just a couple of week ago we had one of our meetings, with more than 200 participants (wheelers but also scooters) and we had, as usual, very good moments traveling across the city center.

Here a link to a video tourned by @Hansolo,

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There three major factors that govern the "grandness" of a city: Influence, Population, and geographical area. Population alone doesn't make a city big. It's not even the most important factor in the information age. There are many variables behind the industrial era migration and settlement patterns. The most important factor is regional, national and global influence; its impact. The least important/relevant is geographical size.

For example, population wise DC is something like 23 on the list of most populous cities; but it is the 3d or 4th largest "Metropolitan area" in the US, and the 13th largest in the world. "City propers" with larger populations have more geographical area. DC proper is 68sqmi of geographic area, and because it incorporated it's suburbs into the city limits (boroughs), NY is about 300sqmi: up from its original 54 sqmi. Geographically, Jacksonville Florida is the largest city in the USA, and Houston Texas is second.

In DC, Incorporating territory (Including what was returned virginia) could never happen in DC because it's suburbs are in two different state jurisdictions; Maryland and Virginia; hence the reason we lovingly refer to the Washington Metro Area as the DMV.

This situation is totally unique from any other city in the US and possibly the world, and I notice a bit difficult for some people from other places to wrap their minds around.

The majority of the population of both of those states live in the DC Suburbs of those states. Statistically, the most educated, highest paid, richest, most fit/healthiest (no kidding) in the USA live in DC and it's suburbs; I think DC proper just fell from number 1 to number 2 of having the most millionaires per capita on the Forbes list. Maryland is number 4 on the list. The same is true for Virginia who I think was number 8 on the list.

When you telescope in on the region it is likely you find that the largest concentration of those millionaires live in the DC suburbs of both MD and VA. So, technically DC has fallen to #2, but not actually when you consider the region's unique makeup; for which raw statistics fail to account. I simply can not imagine either MD or VA allowing their largest and wealthiest tax base (DC suburbs) to leave their states; will not happen as it would spell the effective end of both states.

Enough about regional influence. Now on to global influence. Turn on your television news channel, read the paper, or browse the internet for ten minutes. Take note of how many times in that ten minute span Washington is mentioned. There are many influential cities, but by the influence measure, Washington is the largest city on the planet. Like Washington, London, or New York, Paris is one the most globally influential cities on the planet, and far more "big-time" than most cities with larger populations. Population numbers tell "a" story about a place, but not the whole story.

Perhaps, in the 19th and early 20th centuries it meant more because immigration and migration patterns and large settlement clusters revealed where the population-dependent wheels of industry were churning.

Today's opportunities are not so population reliant or workforce heavy if you will. People can be anywhere. It is quite possible today for someone to work in DC and live in California and vice-versa. The horrendous traffic patterns in DC and other major urban hubs around the world I think reveal that a large number of operations require an on-site workforce at the ready and that far too many people still drive everyday, but Technology is steady working to reduce or eliminate the inconvenient necessity of daily human contact.

All I meant was its over 2000 years old and it's the capitol of one of the biggest countries in Europe. You would think more than 2.3 million people had managed to meander over there in 2 millenia That's all!

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All I meant was its over 2000 years old and it's the capitol of one of the biggest countries in Europe. You would think more than 2.3 million people had managed to meander over there in 2 millenia That's all!

Probably, meandered in and back out as well . Plus, France has a lot of cool places to live. My son is planning a visit to Nice soon; bet that will be a cool experience.

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This wasn't supposed to be a my city is bigger than your city contest. Jeez, relax people﻿﻿.

Haha, my comment too, was just an info, many times I heard the comment about how little Paris was and I just wanted to make it clear that for some strange reason you can define yourself as a resident of Paris only if you live inside the "Periferique".A few meters away, just across the street, and you live in a different city ...

(ps, I'm not French!)

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Haha, my comment too, was just an info, many times I heard the comment about how little Paris was and I just wanted to make it clear that for some strange reason you can define yourself as a resident of Paris only if you live inside the "Periferique".A few meters away, just across the street, and you live in a different city ...

(ps, I'm not French!)

Lol !

Even "inside" Paris, considering the neighborhood you r living in, you might not be considered a "true" Parisian. So right : once you cross the "Peripherique" you will never never be considered a Parisian at all...